DOGE Subcommittee in House Invites the Heads of PBS and NPR To Testify About Their ‘Systemically Biased News Coverage’

A House subcommittee set up to work alongside the Department of Government Efficiency is kicking off its work trying to limit government waste by examining the funding of two long-standing targets of conservatives: National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Corporation. The DOGE subcommittee chairwoman, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, sent a letter to the two nonprofit news organizations, which receive federal funding, inviting their leaders to “testify at a hearing concerning the systemically biased news coverage produced on behalf of federally funded radio and TV stations.”In a letter to the chief executive officer of NPR, Katherine Maher, Ms. Greene said her subcommittee is “concerned by National Public Radio’s (NPR) blatantly ideological and partisancoverage.” Specifically, she highlighted the outlet’s decision in 2020 not to report on a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden because “we don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”In a letter to the president of PBS, Paula Kerger, Ms. Greene noted, “PBS implied that Mr. Elon Musk made a fascist salute while addressing an inaugural celebration hours after President Donald Trump was sworn into office. The characterization was clearly false, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a group that focuses on combating antisemitism.”Both letters said the hearing, which will be held on either March 3 or March 23, will be an “opportunity for you to explain to Congress and the American people why federal funds” should be spent on public broadcasting.A press release announcing the hearing said the subcommittee will be “committed to investigating the activities of PBS and NPR and assessing the value of continued federal funding of these entities.”The subcommittee derives its name from the newly established DOGE, which is aiming to slash the federal budget by $2 trillion.In response to Ms. Greene’s letter, NPR released a statement that said, “We constantly strive to hold ourselves to the highest standards of journalism, as evidenced by our publicly available standards and ethics guidelines.“Today our President and CEO Katherine Maher received a request to testify before the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency in March. We welcome the opportunity to discuss the critical role of public media in delivering impartial, fact-based news and reporting to the American public,” the statement added. The DOGE subcommittee letter comes just days after it was reported that the newly-appointed chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, has opened an investigation into whether NPR and PBS are violating federal law with what he said was their “airing of commercials.”In letters to the outlets, Mr. Carr said it is “possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.“In particular, Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming,” Mr. Carr’s letter said. “For my own part, I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.”Ms. Maher responded to the FCC investigation, telling Fox News Digital that NPR’s “programming and underwriting messaging complies with federal regulations, including the FCC guidelines on underwriting messages for noncommercial educational broadcasters.” PBS also stated that it complies with FCC regulations.

DOGE Subcommittee in House Invites the Heads of PBS and NPR To Testify About Their ‘Systemically Biased News Coverage’

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